Writing A Book Synopsis for OceanographyMary Anne Holmes, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Students read popular science books and write a synopsis of the book, linking the topic(s) covered in the book with those covered in class. This activity is designed for a large geoscience lecture course to aid ...

Google Earth Lab for OceanographyBeth Dushman, Del Mar College This activity is designed to give students an introduction to Google Earth, and to demonstrate some of its capabilities as an educational tool. This lab asks students to examine a number of features and to answer ...

Changing With the TideRebecca Teed, Wright State University-Main Campus This lesson plan is written around a brief role-play in which students learn about and act out plants and animals in a salt marsh habitat as the tides change. -

Estimating Exchange Rates of Water in Embayments using Simple Budget Equations.Keith Sverdrup, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Simple budgets may be used to estimate the exchange of water in embayments that capitalize on the concept of steady state and conservation principals. This is especially true for bays that experience a significant exchange of freshwater. This exchange of freshwater may reduce the average salt concentration in the bay compared to seawater if it involves addition of freshwater from rivers, R, and/or precipitation, P. Alternatively, it may increase the average salt concentration in the bay compared to seawater if there is relatively little river input and high evaporation, E. Since freshwater input changes the salt concentration in the bay, and salt is a conservative material, it is possible to combine two steady state budgets for a bay, one for salt and one for water, to solve for the magnitude of the water flows that enter and exit the bay mouth. Students will make actual calculations for the inflow and outflow of water to Puget Sound, Washington and the Mediterranean Sea and compare them to actual measured values.

Exploring oil spillsKevin Theissen, University of St. Thomas (MN) This activity combines a hands-on demonstration and a follow-up homework assignment designed for students to investigate oil spill clean-up.

Sea Floor Spreading IIActivity and Starting Point page by R.M. MacKay. Clark College, Physics and Meteorology. Students import ocean bathymetry data from text files, they then use Excel to graph these observations along with model prediction to assess the model's ability to simulated the observed topographic features ...

Is that true?Steven Hovan, Indiana University of Pennsylvania-Main Campus Ask students to research the "truth" behind statements from recent news articles and provide their opinion about what is "true". These assignments can be done as often as the instructor feels ...